UW-Madison's student-run music magazine

Laugh Now, Fly Later, Wiz Khalifa

SCORE: 6.2

As fans await Wiz Khalifa’s highly anticipated album, Rolling Papers 2, a project that he has been working on for quite some time, Taylor Gang supporters were given something to ease their patience with Laugh Now, Fly Later, Wiz’s latest 10-song mixtape. As an artist, Wiz is constantly coming out with new music; he’s released two EP’s this year, and now a mixtape before his biggest reveal of them all.

The tape, in-and-of-itself, is just a segue into RP2, however there are still some noteworthy elements. On Laugh Now, Fly Later, Wiz is consistent while making his songs sound effortless; he doesn’t force anything and everything seems, more or less, natural. The music isn’t here to please everyone, for only the true Wiz Khalifa fans know what he exudes as an artist. Each track is mellow, yet the project’s overall tempo juxtaposes the lyricism that Wiz displays, creating an interesting listen. It is obvious that this project isn’t meant to be played at parties, although we know that Wiz is certainly capable of creating that type of sound. Rather, LNFL is the type of music where friends can come together, enjoy each other’s company and have the tuneful beats trailing in the background. The low energy nature of Laugh Now, Fly Later is not surprising, as most of the hype is being devoted to RP2.

The opening track and Casey Veggies-assisted “Royal Highness” is the strongest on the album. Interestingly enough, Veggies took the first bars of the project, which is something you do not see quite often considering he is not the main artist. However, Veggies is able to write and execute a solid verse. His voice is both appealing and soft on top of the song’s drums.

“Figure it Out,” another highlight, is atypical. Instead of rapping, Wiz resorted to spoken word, delivering a message rather than just spitting verses about getting extremely high. It’s more meditative than the other tracks and relieving to fans who may get underwhelmed by the constant talk of weed. This song develops the type of meaning that Wiz is capable of. In the second verse, we see him get down to the core of his emotions; “Yeah they gon try to hurt you, See you focusing, they try to divert you, Being fake ain’t rare, it’s universal, That’s why I’ll never work with you, Family first, till I’m in the dirt.” He reminds his fans to tune out the ones who are doubtful, and to “stay focused.”

As many listeners of hip-hop know, Wiz does not shy away from crafting the portrayal as one of the rap scene’s biggest stoners. Unfortunately, every track mentions some reference to smoking an abundance of marijuana, making it one-dimensional. Each song suffers from repetition, following the same overarching theme of Wiz being the stoner king. For instance, “Weed Farm” is far too predictable. As if it isn’t enough that every song on the mixtape constantly mentions weed, there is a whole song devoted to it. The song is plagued with the terrible hook, “I’m in my weed farm, I’m in my weed farm.”

This project is good for the time being. Although the lyricism isn’t up to par, the soft beats are pleasing and catchy. That being said, going forward, big things are expected from Wiz regarding Rolling Papers 2. Hopefully RP2 will be more heavy-hitting, however, this project was a nice change of pace for most Wiz fans.